Southaptnom won 3-1 in the Sky Bet Championship thanks to Adam Armstrong’s eighth goal of the season. It was Wayne Rooney’s third straight defeat as Birmingham manager.
Armstrong now has eight career goals against the Blues, more than any other team, after settling the game with a fine finish.
He set up TaManchester City loanee scores his third professional goal and first since September of last year.
ylor Harwood-Bellis’ first goal of the season before Carlos Alcaraz tapped in – both players’ first goals of the season. For the visitors, Jay Stansfield scored, but it wasn’t enough to break Rooney’s winless streak.
Southampton had dominated the early stages but had produced nothing decisive until Harwood-Bellis nodded in the ninth-minute opener.
Stuart and Adam Armstrong worked a short-corner routine before the latter lifted for the competition.
Manchester City loanee scores his third professional goal and first since September of last year.
Blues rallied but Oliver Burke’s lashed effort into the side netting – their only shot of the first half – poked the hosts back into life.
Kamaldeen Sulemana and Stuart Armstrong linked up smartly on the left flank before the Ghanaian slid across the face of the goal for Alcaraz to push in.
Rooney had been booed after Wednesday’s 2-0 home defeat by Hull, and Saints supporters rubbed their advantage in with a round of “sacked in the morning” aimed at the Manchester United great.
But rather than rub further salt into the wound of Rooney’s poor start, Birmingham fans supported their boss with cries of “Rooney, Rooney” and “Wayne Rooney’s Blue Army”.
Their support should have been rewarded with a spot-kick but goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu got away with flattening Burke in the box.
Saints should have gone into the break with more than a two-goal advantage as Harwood-Bellis’ free header from a corner skipped wide and Adam Armstrong clipped a one-on-one over John Ruddy but wide of the goal.
After the break, Stuart Armstrong tamely ended a well-worked move and Adam Armstrong’s diving header flashed wide.
But the hosts floundered and Blues capitalised. Stansfield jumped off the bench, met Lukas Jutkiewicz’s knockdown, bullied his way past Kyle Walker-Peters and rifled into the top corner – all within 52 seconds of his 57th-minute introduction.
It was Stansfield’s fourth goal of the season and extended Southampton’s wait for a home clean sheet to 28 matches.
But Saints held onto the ball well and made sure of the result in the 86th minute when top-scorer Adam Armstrong pounced and swivelled onto Sam Edozie’s nod down.
Scott Hogan curled one onto the roof of the goal in additional time but it could not stop Saints moving to a sixth game unbeaten to cement their place in the play-off spots.
